THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB. 317
I. " That the Council be asked to represent to His Majesty's
Government the serious detriment to scientific investigation and to
the dissemination of scientific knowledge which results from the
present restrictions on the importation into this country of cinemato-
graph films recording scientific observations, intended for purposes
of education and advanced study, and not for commercial purposes ;
and to ask for their amendment.''
II. " That steps be taken, with the co-operation of local societies,
to make systematic records of temporarily-open geological sections,
well-borings and the like."
I had the pleasure at the first meeting of listening to Sir John Russell's
interesting and suggestive Presidential Address on "Regional Surveys
and Scientific Societies." The importance of regional surveys as a field
of useful work for the amateur naturalist needs no urging upon the Essex
Field Club, but there are some points in the address which may deserve
your attention. Taking as the definition of a regional survey that it is
"a survey of a district as an environment for human beings," the President
devoted the greater part of his address to the agricultural aspects which
ought to be recorded in a regional survey. His suggestions as to the classi-
fication of permanent grass-land, of systems of rotation of crops and so
on are worthy of attention from those making observations for survey
purposes. His remarks on the devastating effects upon the countryside
of the building of houses "in long narrow streaks along the omnibus
routes" will appeal to all lovers of nature. His closing sentences, however,
strike a more optimistic note than we often hear on this subject :
" Fortunately man cannot permanently destroy Nature's beauty, and
the blots we now deplore will always be within the power of our descendants
to remedy."
NOTES.
Rare Alien Plants in Essex.—An unfamiliar Crucifer brought
into the Stratford Museum in October, 1926, proved, on being referred to
the British Museum authorities, to be Sisymbrium austriacum Jacq. The
plant was found by Mr. T.W.Willis growing on a rubbish-heap on the
Thames-side marshes at Ripple Level, some two miles S.E. of Barking. It
is a native of dry stony hills in Central Europe (Western Germany, Swit-
zerland, and, very rarely, mountainous parts of France) and has been
recorded from this country on several occasions, but the present is believed
to be the first record of its occurrence in Essex.
With S. austriacum was found Sisymbrium altissimum L., a South
European form found in Switzerland and France, which is uncommon in
Britain.
An even stranger find on these Thames-side "dumps" was Guizotia
abyssinica Cass., an Indian composite cultivated for its seeds, from which
an oil is expressed, which has been several times recorded on waste ground.
Other aliens found associated were Coriandrum sativum L., Calendula
officinalis L., Senecis squalidus L. and Salsola Kali var. tenuifolia Mey.
Specimens of each of the above (except the Garden Marigold) have
been placed in the Club's herbarium.—Editor,